Healthy Healing

A Guide To Working Out Grief Using The Power Of Exercise And Endorphins

My new book, Healthy Healing, which stems from my own personal experience of loss, provides a unique plan that uses the power of exercise to help anyone work through grief.

At age thirty-six, I lost my husband in a tragic plane accident. I was left a widow and mother of two young children. During this difficult time, I found solace and hope in the unlikeliest of places: exercise. Now, it’s my goal to help others coping with great pain to rediscover happiness by strengthening body, mind, and spirit through fitness.

Healthy Healing isn’t just an exercise and nutrition plan, it is a guide to moving forward, and feeling better in the midst of grief. It’s common to shut down in the face of overwhelming loss but the truth is focusing on your health may be the best thing you can do, for yourself and the people you love. Not only will strengthening your body give you the physical stamina to fight off depression and despair, exercise produces endorphins that make you feel good, at a time when you need it most. Exercise also helps you overcome sleep problems—a common side effect of trauma and sudden loss. In addition, proper nutrition boosts immunity when your system is at its weakest.

“Healthy Healing gives life to the notion that there can be beauty in the places that feel broken. Through her own powerful story, Michelle connects on a deep level with the reader and speaks such truth! Her message is that you are not alone; because while your journey is unique, unfortunately for us all, loss is not. She empowers the reader to lace up their shoes and get moving to a healthier life of hope and healing, to become a living legacy in a way that really honors our loved ones.”

—Bonnie Carroll, President and Founder of Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors and 2015 Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

"I have never seen the road to ‘everything is going to be okay’ more clearly than in the pages of this book. It’s not just a call to action. It’s a call to life. Michelle takes your hand from page one and doesn’t let it go. I wish I had had this book as my companion and guide years ago."

—Laura Munson, New York Times bestselling author of This Is Not the Story You Think It Is and founder of Haven Writing Retreats

“Healthy Healing will not only guide you through your grief—it will literally save your life. It is about time we have a book that doesn’t leave the body behind after loss.”

—Christina Rasmussen, author of Second Firsts: Live, Laugh and Love Again

"Practical, relatable, and life-affirming, Healthy Healing is a valuable resource for any grieving person. This is not a book you will read one time; this is a book you will return to over and over as a source of inspiration and an encyclopedia of daily steps to facilitate holistic healing. Michelle has not only found her own path through unthinkable tragedy, but she has created a roadmap for people facing any of life's challenges. Mitch must be so proud."

“Michelle is an authentic living example of her own wise guidance on the power of endorphins and exercise being a way to heal and empower your own heroes journey. May it propel you on your solo or even better, community, walk into a bright, renewed future full of unlimited possibility. Life changing from the inside out!” —Carolyn Moor, Founding Director at Modern Widows Club